Friday, September 16, 2011

Review – Petals and Thorns By Jennifer Paris

In exchange for her father’s life, Amarantha agrees to marry the dreadful Beast and be his wife for seven days. Though the Beast cannot take Amarantha’s virginity unless she begs him to, he can and does take her in every other way. From the moment they are alone together, the Beast relentlessly strips Amarantha of all her resistance.

If Amarantha can resist her cloaked and terrifying husband, she gains his entire fortune and will be allowed to return to her family and a normal life. But the Beast seduces her at every turn, exposing, binding, tormenting, and pleasuring Amarantha until she no longer knows her own deepest desires.

Increasingly desperate to break the curse that chains his humanity, the Beast drives Amarantha past every boundary. But her desire for a normal life may jeopardize the love that will save them both.

In this dark story we meet a man who enjoys his sex with a lot of kink and because of his arrogance he makes a fateful mistake. He plays with the wrong woman and is forever cursed until he can find the love he denied others. When Amarantha’s family gives her to the Beast she learns about herself and what she did not even know she wanted.

This story is not for the faint hearted or easily offended. The Beast puts Amarantha through a lot. He is a man with a strong sexual appetite and brings Amarantha’s out as well. I enjoyed seeing the relationship that the two build. Even though the sex is a major part through out her stay with the Beast, Amarantha finds herself seeing the man he truly is inside. The two seem to be made for each other and through it all I kept hoping that Amarantha would answer the Beast questions with a resounding “yes”.

This book is a wonderful retelling of a great fairytale. Jennifer Paris does a good job of bringing the reader into the magical world of the Beast. I was pulled right in from the start and kept turning those pages waiting for Amarantha’s answer just like the Beast. I certainly hope that this is not the only tale this author decides to try her hand at.